PURPOSE: The following procedure establishes the manner in which TTC employees, including probationary employees, occupying full-time equivalent (FTE) positions may voluntarily donate sick and/or annual leave into leave transfer pools for use by other TTC employees who have been approved as leave recipients under personal or family medical-related emergency circumstances as defined herein. The President has approval authority for leave transfer requests. All proposed transfer requests shall be reviewed by the College’s Human Resources Director to ensure compliance with all applicable procedures. Temporary grant employees are not eligible to participate in the Employee Leave Transfer Program.

ADMINISTRATIVE RESPONSIBILITY AND REQUIRED RECORDS

The Human Resources department shall establish two (2) separate leave transfer pool accounts, a sick leave transfer pool, and an annual leave transfer pool. In the event the Human Resources Director determines that sufficient hours of either sick or annual leave are not available in the TTC pool to cover an approved request, the System Office will transfer the necessary hours to the College. This will assure that eligible employees are not denied leave transfer due to the lack of available sick or annual leave hours in TTC’s pool. The College will submit, in writing, to the System Office’s Human Resource Services, a request to have the necessary hours transferred from the System Offices’ sick or annual leave transfer pools. Along with any supporting documentation, the College and the System Office must maintain the following records:

Donation Request Form – The Donation Request Form shall include: the leave donor’s name, the College name; the leave donor’s classification title; the leavedonor’s hourly rate of pay; the number of days/hours of the leave donor’s earned sick or annual leave; the number of days/hours of sick or annual leave the employee wishes to donate to the appropriate TTC transfer pool; the date of the donation; and the leave donor’s signature.

Withdrawal Request Form – The Withdrawal Request Form shall include; the requester’s name; the College name; the requester’s classification title; the requester’s hourly rate of pay; the type of leave requested; the number of days requested; a thorough description of the nature, severity, and anticipated duration of the medical, family, or other hardship situation affecting the requester; and supporting documentation for approval of the request.

Leave Restoration Form – The Leave Restoration Form shall include: the name of the leave recipient; the type of leave transferred (sick or annual); the amount of transferred leave used; the date the leave recipient’s personal emergency or employment terminates; and the amount of transferred leave (sick or annual) being restored to the respective TTC leave transfer account.

DEFINITIONS

A. Personal Emergency - Catastrophic and debilitating medical situation, severely complicated disabilities, severe accident cases, family medical emergencies or other hardship situations that are likely to require an employee’s absence from duty for a prolonged period of time and to result in a substantial loss of income to the employee because of the unavailability of paid leave.

B. Leave Donor - An employee with an approved voluntary written request for transfer of his sick or annual leave to a TTC transfer account.

C. Medical Emergency (Personal or Family) - Personal or family medical emergencies under these procedures are limited to catastrophic debilitating medical situations, severely complicated disabilities, and severe accident cases. (Chronic disabilities or disabilities resulting from elective surgery do not qualify for leave transfer.)

D. Prolonged Period - Prolonged period under these procedures is generally interpreted to be a minimum of thirty (30) working days. Generally, an employee with a medical emergency situation must have been in a leave without pay status for at least thirty (30) working days or documentation must certify a medical emergency will result in an employee being on leave at least thirty (30) workdays. However, any employee, who is within thirty (30) calendar days of eligibility for long term disability insurance or disability retirement benefits and who has exhausted a substantial balance of accrued leave or due to the prolonged medical emergency, shall be eligible for consideration when requesting approval for less than the thirty (30) work day minimum requirement for leave transfer.

E. Transfer Pool – A reserve established and maintained in the Human Resources department for TTC employees. The reserve pool will consist of separate sick and annual leave transfer accounts.

F. Leave Recipient - An employee who has a personal or family medical-related hardship emergency and is approved to receive sick or annual leave from an applicable leave transfer pool.

Note: Faculty employees do not accrue annual leave; however, they do earn FNW days which are considered the same as annual leave days for the purposes of this procedure.

LEAVE POOL DONATIONS

A. General Information

1. An employee donating sick and/or annual leave to the TTC transfer pool must do so prior to the end of the calendar year. An employee may not donate to a specific individual employee leave account. The distribution of such donations is at the sole discretion of the President.

2. Once leave of an employee has been donated and transferred to a TTC transfer pool, it cannot be returned to the leave donor.

B. Maximum Leave Donation

An employee may donate no more than one-half of the sick and/or annual leave earned in a calendar year to the respective TTC transfer pool for that calendar year.

C. Sick Leave Donation

An employee with more than fifteen (15) days of accrued leave in his sick leave account may voluntarily request in writing (Trident Form T3-90) that a specified number of hours of his leave be transferred to the sick leave transfer pool. An employee with less than fifteen (15) days of accrued leave in his leave account may not transfer any leave to the sick leave transfer pool.

D. Annual Leave Donation

An employee may voluntarily request in writing (Trident Form T3-90) that a specified number of hours of their accrued annual leave hours be transferred to the annual leave transfer pool.

LEAVE POOL WITHDRAWALS

A. General Information/Eligibility

An eligible employee with a personal or family emergency who has already been advanced up to fifteen (15) workdays of additional sick leave by the President (TTC Procedure 8-13-2) may request sick or annual leave from the respective leave transfer pool by completing a Withdrawal Request Form (Trident Form T3-109 ). Each separate request must be limited to no more than thirty (30) workdays. During the span of employment with Trident Technical College, employees are limited to up to three (3) leave transfer withdraws, not to exceed a total of ninety (90) workdays. Employees who receive Workers’ Compensation benefits, or who qualify for another program, such as Long Term Disability or Disability Retirement, are not eligible to participate in the Leave Transfer Program. Employees who become eligible for other paid benefits for periods of absence from work will generally be considered ineligible for transfers.

B. Withdrawal Criteria

1. Thirty (30) workdays of leave without pay--After exhaustion of annual and sick leave, or medical certification verifying that the employee will be or is anticipated to be out for at least thirty (30) workdays.

2. Medical Certification (Trident Form T3-108) is required – A medical-related emergency must be certified by a physician including the nature of the emergency and an estimate of the inclusive dates of absence.

3. Substantial Loss of Income – To qualify as substantial income loss, the family emergency must be for a prolonged period. It is stipulated for purposes of this procedure that if an employee has a personal or family medical related emergency for a period of thirty (30) workdays then there is a default substantial loss of income.

4. For Family Medical Emergency Leave Purposes - All sick family leave and annual leave must be exhausted before annual leave can be transferred to an otherwise eligible employee from the leave transfer pool account.

5. For Personal Emergency Leave Purposes - All sick leave and annual leave must be exhausted before sick leave can be transferred from the leave transfer pool account.

6. Employment Record – While the documentation and the circumstances surrounding the emergency or hardship will be primarily used as the criteria for approval or disapproval, the employment record, including length of service, responsible use of leave, job performance, and other job related factors, will also be used in determining approval.

C. Withdrawal Approval Process

1. Approval – All Withdrawal Request Form’s (Trident Form T3-109), shall be submitted to the Human Resources Director for review. The Human Resources Director will forward all completed requests to the President. The President shall approve or disapprove the request. Except when the personal emergency involves a medical condition affecting the employee, the likely impact on morale and efficiency may be considered in the approval process. Committees or other approaches may be used, at the discretion of the President, to assist in determining whether a request should be approved. The decision of the President is final. There is no appeal of a disapproved request.

2. Disposition - Once a decision is rendered to approve or disapprove a request, the Leave Coordinator will send a copy of all documentation associated with the transfer request to the System Office’s Human Resource Services for information and future reference. The evaluation of transfer requests shall be conducted in such a manner as to assure consistent treatment among similarly situated employees. Decisions shall be in keeping with State Human Resources Regulations, the criteria referenced in this procedure and other additional guidelines promulgated by the State OHR guidelines and applicable state and federal laws.

D. Use of Approved Leave Withdrawals

Leave taken under this section may qualify for the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and, if so, will run concurrently.

1. When a Request Form has been approved, the Leave Coordinator shall transfer all or any portion of the respective sick or annual leave pool to the regular sick or annual leave balance of the recipient.

2. Upon approval, a recipient may use sick or annual leave from the respective pool in the same manner and for the same purpose as if they had accrued the leave in the manner provided by regular sick or annual leave regulations and procedures.

3. Sick or annual leave transferred under this program may be substituted retroactively for periods of leave without pay or used to liquidate any indebtedness for advanced sick leave. Whether transferred leave may be applied retroactively and for what length of time will be determined on a case-by-case basis in light of the justification presented.

4. Sick or annual leave that accrues in the regular sick or annual leave balances of the recipient must be used before using any leave from the respective leave pool.

E. When Personal Emergency Terminates

1. The personal emergency affecting a leave recipient terminates when the College determines that the emergency no longer exists or the recipient’s employment terminates.

2. The Human Resources Director shall effectively monitor the status of the recipient’s emergency to ensure that the recipient is not permitted to receive or use transferred sick or annual leave from the respective leave pool after the emergency ceases to exist.

3. When state employment or the personal emergency terminates, the President may not grant further requests for transfer of leave to the leave recipient’s leave account. When state employment or the personal emergency affecting a leave recipient terminates, any transferred sick or annual leave remaining must be restored to the appropriate pool account.

Annual Reports

The Human Resources Director will report preceding calendar year activities (donations and/or approved requests for sick or annual leave transfer) to the System Office’s Human Resource Services. Sick and annual leave transfer information will be provided by the Human Resources Director to assist the System Office in evaluating the leave transfer program. This information shall include but, is not limited to the following:

A. Sick Leave – Total hours and cost of :

1. Sick leave donated;

2. Sick leave used by recipient (s);

3. Sick leave restored, if any.

B. Annual Leave – Total hours and cost of:

1. Annual leave donated;

2. Annual leave used by recipient (s);

3. Annual leave restored, if any.

C. Any additional information requested by OHR needed to evaluate the desirability, feasibility, and cost of the Leave Transfer Program.

D. All records and documentation are subject to audit by the System Office’s Human Resource Services.